Why Does Black Art Have To Be Painful?

"Pain-tings" outline

Black fairytales don’t exist. Often, in art that is based in Afro-centralism, the stories revolve around pain and our persistence through and in spite of it. When we look through the revolving door of art history, the pieces that have garnered the most respect and acclaim have been the ones where brown and black people suffer the most. Let's take a look at the state of film. Within the last decade, the most recognized movies critically have played in this field of anguish and depravity. Moonlight and Twelve Years A Slave have been two of the most talked-about movies, since their inception into the public zeitgeist. These two films that stand diametrically opposed to each other are still rooted in the same thing, the consequences of slavery. These films are important pieces of work that should be held with acclaim as they help contextualize history and educate us on the horrors that our public education systems are about to phase out. As I stated before, there are various similarities, but one that stands out is that both films end with our main character (s) returning home, in a metaphysical or literal sense. There is something about displacement that has always infatuated people, and it’s at the core of most stories, but why must the films that represent African-American filmmaking be based on the horrors of our reality. From a pan-Africanist point of view, we have yet to actually return home. So these black renditions apply a level of longing that is seemingly playing well with critics and audiences.

But what about the stories that dare to rise above the tragedy and suffering? Sylvie’s Love, an incredible work of art masterfully executed by Director Eugene Ash, provides us with an exhilarating example. This is a body of work that takes place during a time when the world was wrought with disadvantage and adversity. The film chooses not to take that into account. It paves its way forward into new territory by not capitalizing on it, but by advancing these characters through it. It showed that these characters had attributes and qualities that existed outside of the struggle of the era. Personal problems still existed for these characters. Problems that most people experience and even showed them succeeding professionally. We still gravitated towards these characters and even rooted for them to succeed. But sadly, this harrowing piece of cinema history was not even nominated for best picture at either the Golden Globes or the Oscars.

I hope that the future for art in its many shapes and forms will venture into this hemisphere and be not only accepted by the public, but by the Hollywood elite who dictate what is serviceable to the art community.